Street Food

Nobody asked me but . . . Rep. Dutch Ruppersberger means well with his bill to restrict when and where the Westboro Baptist Church can carry out its hateful, homophobic protests at military funerals. But I have a better idea: Get every local and national television news operation to sign a pledge to stop giving the Westboro nutcakes airtime. They don't need news coverage; they need to be ignored. • I think we need to fill the First Mariner Arena for the Baltimore Blast on Friday night.

You can still cut the tension with a knife … which there are plenty of, because it's "Top Chef. " We join the chefs recapping what went down last week with Nicholas' immunity debacle. Some chefs are pissed and other get that this is a game and would have done the same thing. This is a game, after all. Back in the "Top Chef" kitchen, the cheftestants are joined by Padma and Chef Roy Choi to announce this week's QuickFire Challenge. Chef Roy (aka the King of food trucks) explains how he started the food-truck revolution in Los Angeles and how they become known for their tacos. In NOLA, their street food of choice comes in the form of a good old Po' Boy. For this week's challenge, the chefs have 20 minutes to create a unique and personalized Po' Boy of their own. The winner will get immunity, which, as we learned last week, is now more important than ever for remaining on the show and for getting everyone mad at you. After the quick 20 minutes are up, Padma and Roy visit each chef to see what they have come up with. Nicholas makes a shrimp Po' Boy with fennel and pancetta.

The new food truck Philly Mignon , a cheese steak specialist, made its downtown Baltimore debut on Monday. So did Darua. Darua, owned and operated by Marcellos Salles, sells Brazilian street food. On the menu are things like feijoda , a stew of black beans and meat; espetinho , skewered meats; and pastels , which are like flattened-out stuffed won-tons. The truck has a website and a Facebook page . You can also follow it on Twitter @daruafoodtruck.

Towson restaurant owners and food truck advocates said during a Baltimore County Council work session Tuesday that they support a proposed bill that would establish a pilot program to regulate food trucks in downtown Towson. "Food trucks would like to be a part of Towson as it grows and goes through its redevelopment," Damian Bohager, president of the Maryland Mobile Food Vendors Association, told the council. "We think it's a great idea as a pilot program and we look forward to revisiting it in a couple years.

The Souper Freak food truck won't be in its regular Friday spot on Sept. 16. Instead, Irene Smith and the Souper Freak gang will be on the northeast corner of Elm Avenue and 36th Street in Hampden, partnering with Baltimore City Recreation and Parks for a one-day event called Street Food for Parking Day. For one day, from 10 a.m-3 p.m., three parking spaces on that corner will be transformed into a bustling sidewalk cafe, where folks...

From ramen to pho, noodles are not new, but they are definitely trendy. At Noodle Charm, a Towson spot that opened in July, the focus is on Thai-style street food. Noodle Charm's bowls of noodles, vegetables, protein and broth, flavored with traditional Thai spices and condiments, are not fancy. But they do satisfy, making Noodle Charm a welcome addition to the Towson dining landscape. Scene & Decor Noodle Charm is in an office park but it's cuter than that sounds. The owners did what they could with the location, painting the walls a bright, warm yellow and adding patterns and art all over the place.

The Beef Brother's $8.49 cheeseburger special could be another food court snoozer that satisfies your cravings but leaves your taste buds sulking. It's not. It's also not Kobe. It's not a grass-fed, shade cooled, sung-lullabies-at-bedtime wonder burger. If anything, the burger at this stall in the Charles Center Plaza food court is ordinary. So what's the attraction? For one thing, the fries. Fresh cut, natural cut, Boardwalk — whatever you call skins-on, deep-fried, golden brown, slightly under-salted spuds served in a paper cup with a hint of cooking oil — that's the style.

Towson restaurant owners and food truck advocates said during a Baltimore County Council work session Tuesday that they support a proposed bill that would establish a pilot program to regulate food trucks in downtown Towson. "Food trucks would like to be a part of Towson as it grows and goes through its redevelopment," Damian Bohager, president of the Maryland Mobile Food Vendors Association, told the council. "We think it's a great idea as a pilot program and we look forward to revisiting it in a couple years.

You can still cut the tension with a knife … which there are plenty of, because it's "Top Chef. " We join the chefs recapping what went down last week with Nicholas' immunity debacle. Some chefs are pissed and other get that this is a game and would have done the same thing. This is a game, after all. Back in the "Top Chef" kitchen, the cheftestants are joined by Padma and Chef Roy Choi to announce this week's QuickFire Challenge. Chef Roy (aka the King of food trucks) explains how he started the food-truck revolution in Los Angeles and how they become known for their tacos. In NOLA, their street food of choice comes in the form of a good old Po' Boy. For this week's challenge, the chefs have 20 minutes to create a unique and personalized Po' Boy of their own. The winner will get immunity, which, as we learned last week, is now more important than ever for remaining on the show and for getting everyone mad at you. After the quick 20 minutes are up, Padma and Roy visit each chef to see what they have come up with. Nicholas makes a shrimp Po' Boy with fennel and pancetta.

NEW YORK - IN THE 1977 MOVIE SATURDAY Night Fever, a camera trails the young and impossibly coiffed Tony Manero (John Travolta) as he swivels his slim hips down a city sidewalk while cramming a slice of pizza into his mouth. Tony's dining on the dash tells us everything we need to know about him - he's vain enough to imagine that even the way he wolfs down food is admirable - but this scene also sets the film in a very particular place: Manhattan. New Yorkers are terribly proud of their 24-7, "we're too busy to sit still" energy.

From ramen to pho, noodles are not new, but they are definitely trendy. At Noodle Charm, a Towson spot that opened in July, the focus is on Thai-style street food. Noodle Charm's bowls of noodles, vegetables, protein and broth, flavored with traditional Thai spices and condiments, are not fancy. But they do satisfy, making Noodle Charm a welcome addition to the Towson dining landscape. Scene & Decor Noodle Charm is in an office park but it's cuter than that sounds. The owners did what they could with the location, painting the walls a bright, warm yellow and adding patterns and art all over the place.

The new food truck Philly Mignon , a cheese steak specialist, made its downtown Baltimore debut on Monday. So did Darua. Darua, owned and operated by Marcellos Salles, sells Brazilian street food. On the menu are things like feijoda , a stew of black beans and meat; espetinho , skewered meats; and pastels , which are like flattened-out stuffed won-tons. The truck has a website and a Facebook page . You can also follow it on Twitter @daruafoodtruck.

The Beef Brother's $8.49 cheeseburger special could be another food court snoozer that satisfies your cravings but leaves your taste buds sulking. It's not. It's also not Kobe. It's not a grass-fed, shade cooled, sung-lullabies-at-bedtime wonder burger. If anything, the burger at this stall in the Charles Center Plaza food court is ordinary. So what's the attraction? For one thing, the fries. Fresh cut, natural cut, Boardwalk — whatever you call skins-on, deep-fried, golden brown, slightly under-salted spuds served in a paper cup with a hint of cooking oil — that's the style.

The Souper Freak food truck won't be in its regular Friday spot on Sept. 16. Instead, Irene Smith and the Souper Freak gang will be on the northeast corner of Elm Avenue and 36th Street in Hampden, partnering with Baltimore City Recreation and Parks for a one-day event called Street Food for Parking Day. For one day, from 10 a.m-3 p.m., three parking spaces on that corner will be transformed into a bustling sidewalk cafe, where folks...

Nobody asked me but . . . Rep. Dutch Ruppersberger means well with his bill to restrict when and where the Westboro Baptist Church can carry out its hateful, homophobic protests at military funerals. But I have a better idea: Get every local and national television news operation to sign a pledge to stop giving the Westboro nutcakes airtime. They don't need news coverage; they need to be ignored. • I think we need to fill the First Mariner Arena for the Baltimore Blast on Friday night.

By ELIZABETH LARGE and ELIZABETH LARGE,SUN RESTAURANT CRITIC | July 24, 2006

First it sweltered, then it poured, but the weather seemed hardly to dampen the enthusiasm of the crowds that descended on Artscape, Baltimore's 25th annual outdoor festival of the arts. From funnel cakes to evening concerts there was much that was familiar along the Mount Royal Avenue corridor and elsewhere around the city - but there also were new touches including the 100-foot-tall Ferris wheel in front of the Meyerhoff Symphony Hall and the fireworks on Friday's opening night. We sent a team of arts writers - pop music critic Rashod Ollison, theater critic J. Wynn Rousuck, classical music critic Tim Smith, restaurant critic Elizabeth Large and art critic Glenn McNatt - to survey the scene.

By ELIZABETH LARGE and ELIZABETH LARGE,SUN RESTAURANT CRITIC | July 24, 2006

First it sweltered, then it poured, but the weather seemed hardly to dampen the enthusiasm of the crowds that descended on Artscape, Baltimore's 25th annual outdoor festival of the arts. From funnel cakes to evening concerts there was much that was familiar along the Mount Royal Avenue corridor and elsewhere around the city - but there also were new touches including the 100-foot-tall Ferris wheel in front of the Meyerhoff Symphony Hall and the fireworks on Friday's opening night. We sent a team of arts writers - pop music critic Rashod Ollison, theater critic J. Wynn Rousuck, classical music critic Tim Smith, restaurant critic Elizabeth Large and art critic Glenn McNatt - to survey the scene.

PHILADELPHIA - Taking the time to discover the family side of Philadelphia leads visitors to travel the cobblestone streets in a horse-drawn carriage, touring the city's 200 years of history.Walking through the city's ethnic neighborhoods, such as the Italian Market or Chinatown, provides an interesting exercise in people-watching, and touching the backs of swimming baby sharks and stingrays at the New Jersey State Aquarium in Camden makes a memorable hands-on experience.In addition to its famous dinosaur dig, the Academy of Natural Sciences offers tropical butterflies flying free in the rain forest exhibit, animals at the Live Animal Center, and a hunt for fossils at The Dig.The children's ride on the two-person Sky Bike balanced on a bar 18 feet above the ground at the CoreStates Science Park (a summer-only and lesser-known attraction linked with the Franklin Institute and the Please Touch Museum)

NEW YORK - IN THE 1977 MOVIE SATURDAY Night Fever, a camera trails the young and impossibly coiffed Tony Manero (John Travolta) as he swivels his slim hips down a city sidewalk while cramming a slice of pizza into his mouth. Tony's dining on the dash tells us everything we need to know about him - he's vain enough to imagine that even the way he wolfs down food is admirable - but this scene also sets the film in a very particular place: Manhattan. New Yorkers are terribly proud of their 24-7, "we're too busy to sit still" energy.

PHILADELPHIA - Taking the time to discover the family side of Philadelphia leads visitors to travel the cobblestone streets in a horse-drawn carriage, touring the city's 200 years of history.Walking through the city's ethnic neighborhoods, such as the Italian Market or Chinatown, provides an interesting exercise in people-watching, and touching the backs of swimming baby sharks and stingrays at the New Jersey State Aquarium in Camden makes a memorable hands-on experience.In addition to its famous dinosaur dig, the Academy of Natural Sciences offers tropical butterflies flying free in the rain forest exhibit, animals at the Live Animal Center, and a hunt for fossils at The Dig.The children's ride on the two-person Sky Bike balanced on a bar 18 feet above the ground at the CoreStates Science Park (a summer-only and lesser-known attraction linked with the Franklin Institute and the Please Touch Museum)